Cabinet tomorrow must decide whether to establish RCI headed by Zaid Ibrahim into RM42 billion 1MDB scandal or give support for full-scale PAC public inquiry taking priority over all other PAC agendas

Will the Cabinet meeting tomorrow hide and run from the biggest financial scandal in the country and the issue which is casting the greatest cloud and doubt on the credibility, integrity and good governance of the Malaysian Prime Minister and government, both nationally and internationally – the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal?

The Cabinet tomorrow should give special focus to the 1MDB scandal, and either decide to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry headed by former Law Minister Datuk Mohd Zaid Ibrahim and other independent credible Malaysians into the 1MDB scandal or give support for a full-scale PAC inquiry into 1MDB scandal, taking priority over all other PAC agendas.

Even the PAC Chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Muhamad (Pulai) has recently changed his stand on the 1MDB scandal and wants the Auditor General’s Department to immediately carry out an audit of the government-owned 1MDB’s deals before PAC calls up the company.

But this is all before the latest shock expose that Sarawak Report website with London’s Sunday Times newspaper have completed an in-depth investigation into the trail of the missing billions at the heart of the 1MDB scandal, claiming to have obtained access to thousands of documents and emails relating to 1MDB transactions which the company had attempted to wipe clean from its computers and servers at the end of last year.

This development has changed the picture completely.

Malaysians fully agree with the five PR MPs on PAC that all documents and related email must be brought to the PAC hearing, and that this must be done immediately before any evidence is destroyed.

The question is why the other seven Barisan Nasional members of the PAC are taking a “tidak apa” attitude on the biggest financial scandal in the country and failed to rise to the occasion to demand a pro-active stand by PAC to hold to account what is probably the biggest financial scandal in the nation’s history.

The seven BN MPs on the PAC cannot remain silent and must declare their stand whether they support an immediate PAC investigation into the 1MDB scandal.

These seven BN MPs on the PAC should resign from the Public Accounts Committee if they are afraid to support the PAC conducting an immediate investigation into the 1MDB scandal, and give their places in PAC to BN MPs who are not afraid of investigating into government financial scandals – even those directly affecting the Prime Minister.

If the Cabinet decides against a RCI and opts instead for a PAC inquiry, the Cabinet should agree at its meeting tomorrow for an amendment to the Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders on the first working day of Parliament on Tuesday, March 10, 2015 to specifically empower the PAC to hold public hearings.

At these public hearings, not only the past and present chief executives and auditors of 1MDB should be summoned to give testimony, the Editor of Sarawak Report, Claire Rewcastle Brown should also be invited to give her testimony, together with the thousands of 1MDB transactions and email which have come into their possession and to share with PAC the findings of investigations into the 1MDB scandal.